Plant of the month 2018 May
The plant of the month: cistanche
In contrary with its relatives orobanches, which look somewhat pale with their pastel colors, cistanche exhibits a brilliant yellow which cannot be missed even far away. It is also much bigger.
When travelling in Algarve (Portugal) beginning of April, I could observe some of them at the limit of a seashore laguna. It occurs that Claude Lemmel, who participates in the Tela Botanica forum about North Africa, sent us a "postcard" from Sahara, taken at the end of March, where we see a profusion of cistanches with a background of dunes and camels. Knowing the biology of this parasitic plant, we can readily identify the host-tree, which is Tamarix aphylla.
Cistanche Cistanche phelypaea is in fact an important food resource for populations in the Sahara. Marceau Gast described it excellently in his book Moissons du désert. Touaregs distinguish three parts : the young inflorescence before emerging from the earth is eaten as a vegetable like an asparagus; the vertical part below is mashed, fermented to eliminate bitterness, dried and added to flour in bread; lastly, the horizontal part connecting the plant to the tree, although not so good, is used as a famine food.
This plant is common in Sahara, and can be found in the seashore sandy areas from Morocco to Portugal, Spain and occasionaly in the Var department (France).
The result of my search can be found in the page Cistanche phelypaea (in French).
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